Well, digging this back up, as this issue is persisting.

The fence was properly installed last august as planned, but no further work occurred then. The first court date happened in late November. We showed up, the small claims court judge did his speech about how solving this on your own is probably better. So we went to a private room to discuss the issue. He started complaining that my landscaping had not been done, and that his yard was being damaged. Fine, lets go for the easy way out, grass is cheep after all. So we said that we would replace whatever sod he wanted at my cost. We asked to know how much was damaged so we could get a ballpark figure. At that point he ended the conversation with "go file your official response, we are going to trial".

We filed the response that without admitting fault, we offered to replace some of his sod and he refused. We also put in the response that contractors who designed the grade of my house had come back on site and certified that my grade is exactly the way it should be. After paying the lady the necessary filing fees, we went back upstairs and handed the clerk the paperwork. We then sat through some other cases, and 15 minutes before the end of the session the last case was wrapped up. The judge called our names, announced he had an important lunch date with a state supreme court judge, and could not hear our case that day. He explained it might be in our best interests to resolve this ourselves, and also pointed out that even if damage had occurred, per the covenants, I was not responsible for the first year, and my neighbor would have to prove to what extent damage occurred after the first year. The judge continued that the proper people to go against was the builder for any damage. My neighbor replied with "I tried talking with them, they denied any wrongdoing and told me to go after Tom." The judges response was classic. "Of course they told you that, they don't want to have to spend money to fix a problem." At that point, the judge rescheduled our hearing for January.

I contacted my neighbor about a week before the date in January to see what he wanted to do. He once again seemed unwilling to talk and thought that we had to go to court. It was very clear on my paperwork we could reach an agreement and submit it in writing to have it placed on record without the need for a hearing. I tried to explain this, but he refused to talk. I went to the court again, sat down, got to hear the same speech, then saw my neighbor finally show some will to work with me. We talked in the side room again, and he seemed to be more accepting of a deal. I stated that I would landscape my yard this spring, and offered to replace some sod once again. He didn't like the idea of working on my timetable, so we came up with paying him $100 to cover whatever sod he wanted replaced, along with that going towards some of his court fees. He tried to get more, but finally settled. We went back into the court room, and told the judge we had reached an agreement. And officially, it was "I will pay $100 in two weeks, and also have my yard landscaped by the middle of May weather permitting".

Fast forward to April. I had planned to get started, but the area got blasted with multiple snow storms and very cold days. Not the time to landscape. So, things got delayed. During the first week of May, work did start though. The very first thing to be done was the installation of a backstop of sorts along our mutual property line. This was complete, and will prove to ensure no direct flow of water can enter his yard from mine. Plans were set into motion to get the supplies needed to finish the project.

I went on vacation in the middle of the month, and came back to find no work had been done thus far, and was informed my landscaper was running a bit behind. May 26th, I got a notice in the mail stating I have to show up in court once again in June for not meeting the agreement. Now the very next day was when sod showed up, and at this point 65% of my back yard is complete, with the rest coming in on monday or tuesday.

Anyhow, at this point, I'm just getting so tired of wasting time, I'm tempted to counter his claims. Anyone have any experience with this? I can think of two claims I can counter with at this point. The first being that he never shared the cost of the fence as he agreed to, and also that he is simply wasting my time. I believe the second one falls under harassment, but I'm not sure. He at this point has no valid claims anymore, since it is not his job to enforce the covenants. If it were, I can look out my windows and see plenty of houses in violation of the landscaping requirement of it being completed a year after moving in. He was paid as agreed, and I have both the certified mailing receipt and also the scanned in version of the cashed check. And engineers have confirmed my grade was maintained properly, and also that less water is flowing onto his yard now, due to one of my downspouts putting water in another neighbors yard. So I think I have a good basis for countering this, since he has nothing to stand on at this point. Whine right now I don't work on the day scheduled for the court case, I may have a new job by then and would have to take time off to go.